The Federal Communications Commission has voted to bring offshored contact centers operated for US organizations back to the US, to protect American jobs, crack down on illegal robocalls, and improve data security.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr said: “Americans get frustrated when they call a US business and end up connecting with a call centre located abroad. Too often, foreign call centres have meant confusing service, delayed support, and even security risks. In many cases, scammers get trained at legitimate call centers and either access your data illegally or take their training to a foreign robocall operation.
"It is time for this offshoring to end. American consumers deserve call centers that speak proficient English, provide clear answers, and are based here at home, not halfway around the world.”
The FCC first proposed the move on 4 March with the vote taking place on 26 March. The FCC now requires agents to be proficient in American Standard English, while organizations must impose limits on call volume from overseas call centers and allow consumers to request to transfer calls to a US-based contact center.
This article explores the FCC's claims about US-based agent roles in detail, including how many contact center jobs are in the US, what service leaders need to do if they currently offshore operations, and how the prevalence of AI in customer service could limit the impact of what the FCC aims to achieve.
How many contact center jobs are there in the US?
The FCC’s own data shows almost 70 percent of US companies outsource at least one department to offshore contact centers. Offshoring has always been popular, but data published by CX Network shows that in 2023 contact center industry growth shifted away from the US market and towards nearshore and offshore regions. This shift was driven by companies seeking to reduce costs amidst a sluggish US economy and higher operating expenses onshore.
In the US in 2023, job creation in the contact center industry declined by 47.2 percent, resulting in only 26 new projects and an estimated 9,247 jobs created.
In contrast, India created the highest number of jobs globally within this industry at around 98,520 jobs, approximately 63,000 more when compared to the previous year.
When it comes to salaries, it’s easy to see why offshoring is so popular. North America has the highest contact center salaries of any market, with salaries in the US and Canada averaging $38,200 to $41,400.
Key actions for organizations offshoring support
According to Dan Hartman, director of CX at CSG, there are a few ways organizations could approach the FCC's proposals. But regardless of which approach they choose, "organizations must keep CX in the front seat".
"The trap is to treat this as a pure cost and compliance challenge. Many organizations will lose trust and brand equity by passing costs to the customer or introducing technical complexity and red tape that makes the customer jump through new hoops. Instead, the transition should feel seamless to the customer," Hartman says.
Hartman says that to prepare for a smooth transition, organizations need to ask themselves the following questions:
- Can we build a strong proactive communications strategy that reduces the need for customer support?
- Have we already invested enough into modernizing our support technology strategy to begin with? Do we have modern, smart, and capable IVR, chatbots, and support portals that support customers across channels and contexts?
- If the organization already has an owned-and-operated footprint: Do we have the resources to proactively expand our onshore footprint, building talent before the rule passes and demand for experienced service reps in the US spikes?
The operational changes ahead for service leaders
Hartman says the FCC's proposed requirements – such as disclosing when support is offshore, offering a path to a US agent, and keeping sensitive data domestic – "take away the levers leaders have relied on to keep service stable during volume spikes".
"There's no denying that this will drive up costs as well," he says. "Organizations are suddenly designing for disclosure prompts, transfer-to-US flows, and data boundaries that dictate where work can happen, which means every misroute or failed self-service attempt gets a lot more expensive. Experienced representatives will come into higher demand and will cost more as well, forcing organizations to find a healthy balance between cost and experience."
Working constraints also pose challenges for service leaders. Hartmen says the agent role is a coveted position in the countries many BPOs operate out of. They are "well-paid, middle class job that employees take pride in doing," he says.
This does not ring true to the US. Hartmen says the workforce will need to be rebuilt as BPO companies looking to hire onshore will need to add more incentives and perks to fill those roles at scale. "A focus on talent retention will be crucial," he adds.
Why AI has changed the dynamics
In line with the political atmosphere in the US at present, the FCC has pressed ahead with its plans under the guise of creating and protecting American jobs but appears unaware of the increased overheads organizations now face and the cost savings that are being promised by the tech companies developing AI agents and automation solutions.
In a press statement, customer communications provider AnswerConnect told the FCC its proposal will "unintentionally accelerate the adoption of AI-powered customer service rather than creating more jobs. This has been shown to lead to negative customer service experiences". It also said it had made a formal submission to the US regulator.
CEO Natalie Ruiz said: "Instead of bringing customer service jobs back to the US, the rules will likely accelerate a massive shift toward AI-dominant customer service. And that's not what consumers want."
AnswerConnect recently conducted a survey of 6,000 consumers in partnership with research firm OnePoll and the results highlight the demand for human agents to remain central to service. As many as 83 percent of consumers said they prefer speaking with a real person rather than AI and one in three said they would hang up if they reached an AI system.
Rick Ruth, senior director of carrier relations and regulatory of CTM told CX Network organizations are more likely to take a hybrid approach to balancing human agents in the US with AI-driven and automated service journeys.
“You may see some increase in US-based roles, especially for more complex or higher-trust interactions. But at the same time, there’s a strong incentive for companies to expand the use of automation, self-service, and voice AI for more routine or initial interactions,” he said.
“What we tend to see in practice is a layered or hybrid model – automation handles intake and triage, and then more complex or sensitive calls are routed to the appropriate agents. And a lot of that can build on existing routing and compliance processes rather than requiring a complete shift.”
Hartman says the FCC's proposals will likely see some uptick US-based job roles and also more dependence on AI and automation – and it will magnify the talent challenge".
He explains that if organizations route simple and complex tasks to AI and human agents respectively – as outlined by Ruth – it will present an onboarding gap. "Without the basic support calls for new reps to train on, this [approach] will slow the pipeline for rising talent and lead to burnout as human reps take only the most difficult and emotionally charged cases," he explains.
"At the same time, if organizations automate carelessly to offset the cost, customers end up right back where they started: misrouted, repeating themselves, bounced between a bot and an agent, and calling back because nothing got resolved. That's the same frustration this rule was set out to fix, just happening through automation instead of an offshore agent," he adds.
Hartman believes organizations should not get caught in the trap of thinking the goal is to reduce headcount. The goal should always be stronger experiences. "As organizations look to strike the right balance between human and automation, AI should not take the X out of CX. Instead, look at AI as the containment and deflection strategy that helps further the customer's goals," he says.
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